Exclusive: China to Approve Nomura to Set Up Foreign-Controlled Brokerage

Japanese investment bank Nomura will soon be approved to set up a securities joint venture in Shanghai, which would be the first newly established foreign-controlled brokerage on the Chinese mainland, sources familiar with the matter told Caixin.

The development is part of Beijing’s broader drive to grant foreign investors wider access to China’s financial markets, including allowing them to take controlling stakes in securities joint ventures.

In late February, Yi Huiman, the new chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), met in Beijing with senior executives of Nomura Holdings Inc., Japan’s biggest brokerage and investment bank, the sources told Caixin, speaking on condition of anonymity. The CSRC is expected to approve the venture soon, the sources said.

Nomura will hold 51% of the new venture, while Shanghai-based state-owned enterprise Orient International (Holding) Co. Ltd. will hold the remainder.

Yu Qing and Sun Dongqing will be named chair and general manager of the venture, respectively, the sources said. Yu was previously a vice president of China Reinsurance (Group) Corp., the country’s only state-owned reinsurance group. She previously worked for the Ministry of Finance for 20 years dating back to 1989. Sun was previously head of the wealth management division at investment bank China International Capital Corp. Ltd.

In April last year, the CSRC issued rules raising the ceiling on foreign ownership of China-based securities firms to 51% from the previous 49%. In November, the securities watchdog gave the first approval for a foreign firm to take control of a mainland securities joint venture to Swiss financial titan UBS Group AG, allowing it to raise its shareholding in UBS Securities Co. Ltd. to 51%.